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Understanding 9/11Astro Blaster
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Astro Blaster is a shoot 'em up arcade game released by Sega in 1981.
The player controls a ship (bearing a resemblance to the Battlestar Galactica) which can fire and move left or right. The player must continuously monitor the onscreen temperature and fuel gauges; if the ship overheats, its weapon is disabled, and if it is depleted of fuel, the vessel itself explodes. The player must battle through waves of enemies, which attack with varied formations and flight patterns. When a wave is destroyed, a new one appears. At the end of each sector, the player flies through an asteroid belt and can obtain extra fuel by shooting fireballs. After this, the mother ship is met, where the player docks and refuels for the next sector. Also, the player is rewarded various bonuses for accomplishing certain feats, such as, shooting all enemies in a specific order or shooting all enemies without missing.
Astro Blaster features "speech synthesis" technology. This was a novel feature at the time that was shared with Midway's contemporary arcade title Gorf, and had been pioneered a year earlier by Stern's, with "Berzerk". During attract mode (specifically while showing the high score list) the game's voice synthesizer generates the speech "Fighter pilots needed in sector wars...play Astro Blaster!"
1 Player Start 1 2 Player Start 2 Coin 1 5 Coin 2 6 Service 1 9 Service Mode F2 P1 Left LEFT P1 Right RIGHT P1 Button 1 LCONTROL or Mouse B1 P1 Button 2 LALT or Mouse B3 P2 Left D P2 Right G P2 Button 1 A P2 Button 2 S
Released
1981
Platform
Arcade
Developed by
Sega/Gremlin
Published by
Sega/Gremlin
Interface
Direct control
Setting
Sci-fi / futuristic
Visual
Fixed / flip-screen
Gameplay
Arcade, Shooter
Perspective
Side view
Genre
Action
Description
Astro Blaster is an one or two player arcade game where you have to blast various waves of different alien ships who appear above your ship. On each screen a wave of aliens will appear and you have to destroy them all to move onto the next screen and a different wave. Each wave moves in different formations and fires lasers at you but you also have a laser and can fire back as you move your ship left and right at the bottom of the screen. The ability to warp is also included which slows down the enemy for a short space of time. You need to keep an eye out on your laser temperature gauge, fire too much and it overheats disabling the ability to fire for a short time. Another gauge to be aware of is your fuel gauge which slowly decreases. To fill it you have to dock with your mother ship. This appears after every four waves so the quicker you destroy the waves the quicker you can dock. You have to line up your ship as it approaches. It is game over if you lose your three lives or run out of fuel.
From Mobygames.com. Original Entry
- Access-restricted-item
- true
- Addeddate
- 2014-08-07 06:17:30
- Coin_buttons
- 2
- Colleciton
- stream_only
- Cpu
- I8035
- Emulator
- astrob
- Emulator_ext
- zip
- Emulator_keybd
- arcade
- Flyer
-
https://archive.org/details/arcadeflyer_astro-blaster
https://archive.org/details/arcadeflyer_astro-blaster_alt
- Genre
- Shooter / Gallery
- Identifier
- arcade_astrob
- Joy
- left-right
- Joy_buttons
- 2
- Location
- Worldwide
- Mobygames_developed_by
- Sega/Gremlin
- Mobygames_gameplay
- Arcade, Shooter
- Mobygames_genre
- Action
- Mobygames_interface
- Direct control
- Mobygames_perspective
- Side view
- Mobygames_platform
- Arcade
- Mobygames_published_by
- Sega/Gremlin
- Mobygames_released
- 1981
- Mobygames_setting
- Sci-fi / futuristic
- Mobygames_visual
- Fixed / flip-screen
- Players
- 2
- Scanner
- Internet Archive Python library 0.7.0
- Service_buttons
- 1
- Year
- 1981
comment
Reviews
Reviewer:
telkomuniversity
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
January 22, 2020
Subject: i'm see my child hood
Subject: i'm see my child hood
play this games is like when i'm sit on public billiyard pool when i very small
Reviewer:
Ixion73
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
June 20, 2019
Subject: Much like Megamania
Subject: Much like Megamania
Seems like Activision flat-out stole the concept of Astro Blaster for its popular Megamania for the Atari 2600. Just like that game, Astro Blaster is an atypical slide-and-shooter featuring a variety of targets that all behave differently, adding some much-needed graphical variety to the game. Like most games with voice synthesis, the ROM this is based on does not appear to have any other sound (I imagine it did in its coin-op version) but it's still fun without it. Give it a shot.
Reviewer:
Jerry Cornelius
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
July 5, 2018
Subject: Fun!
Subject: Fun!
A nice space shooter game that's fast paced and challenging.
Reviewer:
xurian
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
November 22, 2015
Subject: Joy
Subject: Joy
Hello, everyone
I want, first, to thanks to Internet Archive for this joy to play, again the game of my early youth.
I'm so familiar with this game, even, I was one of the champions in my games room in my city (Giurgiu, Romania, unbelievable, isn't?), 30 years ago.
The game have a seven very hard sectors and, additional, a very small one, the eighth and, after the game restart to the beginning. You can get an extra ship (the fourth one) if you gather a number of points (I really forget exact number) but only if you don't wasted any ships from the tree.
The catch is to restart the game as many times you could do and gather as many points you could do, but, is actually very hard job.
To get extra points you have to shoot one fire for one enemy ship (if you shoot a single fire in landscape you don't get the bonus) and you have to shoot in a predefined sequence, other from each kind of enemy ships, plus to the end of the sectors you can get the maximum bonus from the charger ship if you succeed to align your ship as close as you could from charger ship arms (attention, if you fail to reach the charge aria you will loose all your tree ships).
The hard part for me is the control keys because I was accustomed to use the left hand to guide the ship and the right hand to shoot and now is totally opposite for me, it's like I learn to play this gorgeous game, again.
Also, I miss the original game sound (landscape sound, ships sounds, and speaker), but, I'm so happy because I can play it again.
I'm not a native English speaker and I apologize if my tongue was made from wood or you lose the meaning of the phrase, anytime.
For other explanations I'll response to your questions with all my pleasure.
I want, first, to thanks to Internet Archive for this joy to play, again the game of my early youth.
I'm so familiar with this game, even, I was one of the champions in my games room in my city (Giurgiu, Romania, unbelievable, isn't?), 30 years ago.
The game have a seven very hard sectors and, additional, a very small one, the eighth and, after the game restart to the beginning. You can get an extra ship (the fourth one) if you gather a number of points (I really forget exact number) but only if you don't wasted any ships from the tree.
The catch is to restart the game as many times you could do and gather as many points you could do, but, is actually very hard job.
To get extra points you have to shoot one fire for one enemy ship (if you shoot a single fire in landscape you don't get the bonus) and you have to shoot in a predefined sequence, other from each kind of enemy ships, plus to the end of the sectors you can get the maximum bonus from the charger ship if you succeed to align your ship as close as you could from charger ship arms (attention, if you fail to reach the charge aria you will loose all your tree ships).
The hard part for me is the control keys because I was accustomed to use the left hand to guide the ship and the right hand to shoot and now is totally opposite for me, it's like I learn to play this gorgeous game, again.
Also, I miss the original game sound (landscape sound, ships sounds, and speaker), but, I'm so happy because I can play it again.
I'm not a native English speaker and I apologize if my tongue was made from wood or you lose the meaning of the phrase, anytime.
For other explanations I'll response to your questions with all my pleasure.
Reviewer:
Aufan57
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
November 9, 2015
Subject: Great Game!!
Subject: Great Game!!
One of my all time favorites. use to own this game in the upright version back in the 80's until a house fire claimed the best of it.:(.
this is a excellent way to go back to the old retro games. made it back to sector 2 but still haven't figured out how to activate the warp mode. any help would be greatly appreciated.
this is a excellent way to go back to the old retro games. made it back to sector 2 but still haven't figured out how to activate the warp mode. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Reviewer:
JackRoss
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
September 22, 2015
Subject: how to play
Subject: how to play
For play use the arrow for move the ship left or right, for shoot use Ctrl (left or richt )
i hope it will be heplfull
P.S. English is not my first lenguage so I don't know if the grammar is perfect
i hope it will be heplfull
P.S. English is not my first lenguage so I don't know if the grammar is perfect
Reviewer:
larryfeltonj
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
July 20, 2015
Subject: Fun Game, Surprisingly Challenging
Subject: Fun Game, Surprisingly Challenging
I just recently noticed the Internet Arcade, although I've been a fan of the Internet Archive. I'm trying to go through each of the playable games.
This one was fun for me. I spent many hours, and quarters, playing Galaga in bars around Atlanta in the early 1980s. When I looked at Astro Blasters, I thought it was a Galaga rip-off.
It turns out Sega's Astro Blaster was released in 1981,the same year as Namco's Galaga. They both were probably inspired by the earlier success of 1978's Space Invaders.
Since I haven't yet really learned the emulator, it took me a few tries to figure out the sequence of starting, and the control keys.
For those in similar confusion: you press the big round button with your mouse, when the metadata loads, press "insert coin", then "Player 1".
The game starts quickly, so I have to immediately position my left hand on the Ctrl for firing, and my right hand on the left and right arrow keys.
So far I haven't discovered any other relevant keys, but if anyone knows more about the game than I do, please leave a note here.
Astro Blasters is surprisingly challenging, and on my system (Firefox on Ubuntu) the controls are very responsive.
After about two hours of play, I've most commonly been killed by having all three ships shot, followed by running out of fuel.
It's important to shoot the fireballs when you can (you'll recognize them), because hitting them accumulates refuelling credit. I've only been successful in reaching the stage for refuelling once so far.
This is a fun game, challenging enough, and performs well in the emulator (at least in the stages I've reached so far).
This one was fun for me. I spent many hours, and quarters, playing Galaga in bars around Atlanta in the early 1980s. When I looked at Astro Blasters, I thought it was a Galaga rip-off.
It turns out Sega's Astro Blaster was released in 1981,the same year as Namco's Galaga. They both were probably inspired by the earlier success of 1978's Space Invaders.
Since I haven't yet really learned the emulator, it took me a few tries to figure out the sequence of starting, and the control keys.
For those in similar confusion: you press the big round button with your mouse, when the metadata loads, press "insert coin", then "Player 1".
The game starts quickly, so I have to immediately position my left hand on the Ctrl for firing, and my right hand on the left and right arrow keys.
So far I haven't discovered any other relevant keys, but if anyone knows more about the game than I do, please leave a note here.
Astro Blasters is surprisingly challenging, and on my system (Firefox on Ubuntu) the controls are very responsive.
After about two hours of play, I've most commonly been killed by having all three ships shot, followed by running out of fuel.
It's important to shoot the fireballs when you can (you'll recognize them), because hitting them accumulates refuelling credit. I've only been successful in reaching the stage for refuelling once so far.
This is a fun game, challenging enough, and performs well in the emulator (at least in the stages I've reached so far).
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